Introduction to Social Analysis
Week 1 Introduction
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• This second half of the module follows the basic
approach to Sociology of examining theory and
methods not as abstract topics in themselves but
rather as essential practical tools for
understanding the social world.
• Thus it focuses on the questions sociologist
asked and ways sociologists endeavoured to
answer those questions by examining models of
empirical sociological research.
• You should endeavour to make links between
this section and the founding fathers and
sociological issues covered in Semester 1.
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Course Outline
• For each lecture there is:
– a reading in the course pack. The selected reading is designed
as an introduction to the concepts and ideas used in the lecture.
– A set of studies which are used in the lecture to illustrate the way
that sociologists doing empirical studies have used the concepts
and theories discussed.
• Tutorials are to help you understand the ideas.
• The essay is intended to improve your skills.
– Write a book review. Use the knowledge you have gained about
sociological concepts and ideas to take a critical look at a
particular study. You have to work at identifying the ideas and
approached used in that book, and evaluate the study.
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Why theory
• “Nothing so useful as a good theory”
• I will teach theory as a practical resource for
making sense of society not simply a history of
ideas, or ideas for their own sake.
• I the lectures I will try to make explicit the
assumptions about society that motivate and
guide the studies under consideration.
• Example; the Jack Roller takes a naive social
problems approach, social engineering and
social policies.
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• How do Sociologists go about making
sense of society. What motivates them?
• What are the questions they ask?
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What can we learn from the stories
people tell?
• What are the possibilities and limitations of
using biographies, auto-biographies and
life histories to create authentic stories and
understand the social bonds which tie
people together?
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Biography and auto-biography are
necessary but insufficient tools to
understand social life
• People’s accounts of their lives, activities, values and
behaviour is absolute core of what sociologist work with.
• It is insufficient in itself. Need tools of interpretation.
• What should you pay attention to when doing a
sociological reading of a life history?
• Who is telling the story and how it is told
• What is the context of the story
• Bottom up as opposed to top down perspectives Sociological Imagination (C. Wright Mills) the link
between private concerns and public issues
• What is the role of authorship in biography?
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How are life histories constructed?
• Questioning memory in terms of accuracy
and selective bias
• Narrative coherence
• “Authorship, like identity, is something to
be contested and established.”
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• Reading:
• Prue Chamberlayne, Joanna Bornat, and
Tom Wengraf. (eds) 2000 The turn to
biographical methods in social science:
comparative issues and examples New
York : Routledge, . Introduction and
Chapter by Rustin.
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• “Describe people as historical formed
actors whose biographies necessary to
render fully intelligible their historical
action in context”
• “the embeddedness of the biographical
account in social macro-structures
• “the study of a single case involves
mobilising tacit or explicit knowledge about
other cases”
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Clifford R. Shaw The Jack-Roller A Delinquent Boy's Own Story
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Chicago school
Clifford’s role
What do we learn?
How do we learn it?
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Chicago school
• Context of Chicago
• Empirical sociology programme
• Influence of W.I. Thomas
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Clifford’s role
• Part of academic and professional
establishment
• Presents story for its utility – social
problems perspective
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What do we learn from the book?
How do we learn it?
• “the boy’s own story” – something about Stanely,
something about his family and social circle, and
something about Chicago
• Context and commentary from official record and
Clifford’s interpretation.
• We can read study as a historical document
telling us about a former society and its values.
• Doesn’t tell as about – the Jazz Age, Prohibition,
or the Great Depression.
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Gardner Katy 2002 Age, narrative and
migration Oxford Berg 301.45109421 GAR
• East End and Bangladesh
• Narrative styles
• Cross society and culture comparisons –
“the global is local”.
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Bengali women in London
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• “The informants, it seems, have actively
participated in how they are represented. Such
appearances are, however, misleading… ... [The
authors] chose what words to include, what to
edit out, and how to frame the women’s words.
• .. The book is my narrative as much as theirs.
This does not invalidate it; it just makes it one
kind of truth amongst others.”
• (Gardner 2002: 28-9)
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• Narrative genres very widely and are
closely related to existing cultural forms as
well as the diverse construction of
identity.” (Gardener 2002:31)
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Conclusion
• Essential but limited understanding of
what can we understand society from
the perspective of only one person
• Biographical accounts need:
– Comparison
– Interpretation
– Context.
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